More than a Little Shocked
10 September 2007
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Patricia Cohen reports that Naomi Klein quotes economist John Williamson's remark that "One will have to ask whether it could conceivably make sense to think of deliberately provoking a crisis so as to remove the political logjam to reform" ("Free-Market Mischief in Hot Spots of Disaster," September 10). The implication is that Ms. Klein has smoking-gun evidence that market-oriented scholars - seeking to choke the globe on markets - are eager to manufacture crises in developing countries.
Ms. Klein takes Mr. Williamson's remark out of context. This remark occurs in the opening essay of a book featuring case studies of policy reforms. It refers to Mancur Olson's thesis that crises often make policy reforms politically easier to achieve. Far from advocating such crises, Mr. Williamson merely alerted readers to the possibility that some pre-reform crises might have been deliberately provoked. Note further that the example Mr. Williamson used of a such a crisis (namely, hyperinflation) is one whose occurrence becomes more likely the more closely an economy resembles the centrally controlled one that Ms. Klein is so keen on.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Patricia Cohen reports that Naomi Klein quotes economist John Williamson's remark that "One will have to ask whether it could conceivably make sense to think of deliberately provoking a crisis so as to remove the political logjam to reform" ("Free-Market Mischief in Hot Spots of Disaster," September 10). The implication is that Ms. Klein has smoking-gun evidence that market-oriented scholars - seeking to choke the globe on markets - are eager to manufacture crises in developing countries.
Ms. Klein takes Mr. Williamson's remark out of context. This remark occurs in the opening essay of a book featuring case studies of policy reforms. It refers to Mancur Olson's thesis that crises often make policy reforms politically easier to achieve. Far from advocating such crises, Mr. Williamson merely alerted readers to the possibility that some pre-reform crises might have been deliberately provoked. Note further that the example Mr. Williamson used of a such a crisis (namely, hyperinflation) is one whose occurrence becomes more likely the more closely an economy resembles the centrally controlled one that Ms. Klein is so keen on.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Wednesday March 5, 2008 at 2:10pm